The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right party, was handed a four-year prison sentence and banned from holding public office for five years by a French court Monday, in what could be the biggest setback for her political cause in a generation.

Until this week, Le Pen had looked like the likeliest winner in France's next presidential election set for 2027, but was found guilty Monday by a court of embezzling European Union funds.

When handing down its sentence, the court said the crimes committed by Le Pen, 56, warranted an immediate ban from public office, Reuters reported.

While Le Pen may yet successfully appeal the sentence — it will not be applied until she has exhausted all avenues of appeal — the four-year sentence, two years of it suspended, and the ban on seeking public office until the end of the decade will come as a massive blow to the French far-right and may spell the end of her political career.

The Paris prosecutor had previously requested that if found guilty, Le Pen be barred from running for office and given a five-year prison sentence, along with a fine of 300,000 euros ($316,860). In its decision, the court handed Le Pen a fine of 100,000 euros.

The nine-week trial, which began in November after almost a decade of investigations, saw Le Pen and 24 other figures from her National Rally (RN) party accused of misusing over 3 million euros ($3.3 million) of European Parliament funds to pay party staff between 2004 and 2016 in violation of EU regulations. All of those accused have denied the charges.

Delivering his ruling Monday, judge Benedicte de Perthuis said Le Pen had been “at the heart” of the scheme. “It was established that all these people were actually working for the party, that their (EU) lawmaker had not given them any tasks,” he added, according to Reuters.

He said that the investigations also showed that “these were not administrative errors... but embezzlement within the framework of a system put in place to reduce the party’s costs.”... (our emphasis)

The French, unlike Americans, do what they have to do with their felonious fascists.  Bon travail!

The bad:

Emergency aid has streamed into Southeast Asia in the two days since a massive earthquake struck Myanmar and Thailand. Relief efforts are focused on Myanmar, where the estimated death toll rose to 1,644 by Sunday afternoon.

The number of dead from Friday's 7.7 magnitude quake is expected to increase, while the number of injured was at 3,408 and the missing figure rose was 139 on Sunday. The earthquake's epicenter was near Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city with 1.5 million people. In neighboring Thailand, the death toll rose to 17.  [snip]

On Sunday, a convoy of 17 Chinese cargo trucks carrying critical shelter and medical supplies was expected to reach Mandalay. China said it has sent more than 135 rescue personnel and experts along with supplies like medical kits, generators, earthquake detectors and drones while pledging around $13.8 million in emergency aid.

Hong Kong on Saturday dispatched 51 search-and-rescue personnel including firefighters and ambulance personnel as well as two search-and-rescue dogs. The group brought 9 tons (18,000 pounds) of equipment including life detectors and an automatic satellite tracking antenna system, according to a statement on the Hong Kong government's website. The Hong Kong government also will set aside HK$30 million ($3.9 million) from its Disaster Relief Fund to help Myanmar victims.

Russia's Emergencies Ministry said it had flown in 120 rescuers and supplies to Yangon, Myanmar's second-largest city, and Russia's Health Ministry said Moscow had sent a medical team that includes specialists in infectious diseases, resuscitation, traumatology and psychology, as well as search and rescue teams with canine units and devices that can search in rubble with depths as much as 4.5 meters (14.7 feet)... (our emphasis)

There follows a long list of about contributions many other nations are making to relief efforts.  When co-Presidents Trump and Musk decimated USAID, we lost the ability to provide direct governmental aid (humanitarian aid that's considered "soft power") to other countries in need.  Here's one assessment:

Sarah Charles, a former senior USAID official who oversaw disaster-response teams and overall humanitarian work under the Biden administration, said the system was now “in shambles,” without the people or resources to move quickly to pull out survivors from collapsed buildings and otherwise save lives.

Notably, China and Russia are gleefully stepping in to provide aid to Myanmar, exercising their "soft power" in the vacuum caused by Putin's puppet and his South Afrikaner troll- mate.

The ugly:

Working-class car buyers will be the hardest hit by U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff on imported vehicles because almost all low-cost new cars sold in the United States are built elsewhere.

Lower-income buyers will suffer another blow from expected hikes in used car prices as demand surges and supply shrinks.

 

New cars priced under $30,000 are already rare as the average new-vehicle price approaches $50,000. The only way automakers can eke out profits on economy cars, analysts say, is to build them in nations with lower manufacturing costs.

A Reuters review of data from two auto research firms found just 16 models with an average sticker price less than $30,000 and only one, Toyota's Corolla, that is assembled in the United States. All others are made in Mexico, South Korea, or Japan.

Slapping a 25% tariff on these low-end cars may force price increases that make them unaffordable to their target market or cause some automakers to abandon them entirely, industry analysts said.

 

“New vehicles across the board are going to be more expensive," said Sam Fiorani, vice president of research firm AutoForecast Solutions. "That's going to push more buyers into the used market, which will also raise the price of used vehicles.”  [snip]

 

Trump’s political base of rural supporters could be among those bearing the brunt of the import taxes. About half of voters reporting household incomes of less than $50,000 annually backed Trump's 2024 election, along with 56% of voters without college degrees, according to an Edison Research exit poll.

 

Trump told NBC news on Saturday that he "couldn't care less" if automakers hike prices, "because if the prices on foreign cars go up, they're going to buy American cars."

 

Many of those foreign cars are made by American automakers, including three under-$30,000 vehicles from GM: The Buick Envista and Chevrolet Trax and Trailblazer. All three are made in South Korea. GM also makes hundreds of thousands of its hot-selling full-sized trucks in Mexico... (our emphasis)

"Couldn't care less..."  Maybe when his tariff's inflationary costs start to kick in with a vengeance, the scales will start to drop from some of the Malignant Fascist's less ardent supporters.  We won't be holding our breath.  The ugly part, of course, is that people who didn't support the MF's Project 2025 agenda and his economically medieval tariffs will get hurt in the process.